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"Citizen.

European.

Pianist, ”says the website.

"Citizen.

Pianist.

Activist.

Human, ”is how his Twitter account identifies him.

Yes, the one with 114,000 followers, where love and hate meet him.

Igor Levit is no longer just with Beethoven, Bach & Co., but very much in our bubble-driven, social media-driven world.

He wants it that way.

The pianist of the hour, he's streaming again, just like in the first lockdown, but now no longer every day, only when he feels like it.

A few days ago, at the Twitter house concert, Beethoven's piano sonata No. 16 Opus 31/1 - “the one with the hiccups” was the best.

It is very funny, the composer is also entering a new world of sonatas, as Igor Levit introduces and explains.

30,000 people have watched it so far.

Igor Levit also recently published a vegetable casserole photo and promoted his first book, due out in April.

It is called “house concert”, of course, and it is about “the year in which he finds himself - as an artist and as a person”.

Sure, we don't do it underneath.

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He also kicked “Moon River” on the Melodica, issued “gratinated with cheese” as the slogan of the day and retweeted the Hungarian EU gangbang in Brussels.

On Thursdays he was a guest at the Jewish Museum Frankfurt in the speech series “Thinking without a railing” to talk to Michel Friedman about identity.

Igor Levit also spent Friday morning in Hessen.

More precisely on a piece of forest in Central Hesse that will soon no longer be there.

Between Homberg (Ohm) and Stadtallendorf, about 20 kilometers east of Marburg, lies the Dannenröder Forest, with its 350-year-old oaks.

The Hessian noble family Schenck zu Schweinsberg sold part of it so that the last section of the controversial A 49 from Kassel to Gießen can soon be built here.

Since the end of 2019, environmentalists have been protesting in a camp that is being cleared by the police.

300 meters of forest are still standing.

Luisa Neubauer asks questions

Danni has to stay, think Greenpeace.

And that's why her member Igor Levit is now hugging Danni.

With music, because there is no other way to embrace Danni.

But first, shortly after half past nine in the live stream, his girlfriend Luisa Neubauer has the floor.

She stands “in a tragic place that asks incredibly big questions.

About people and nature, ”says the thickly hooded climate activist.

And Igor Levit, black clothes, boots, pink scarf, white cap, white mask, agrees with her.

This is “a very sad occasion.

Danni's swan song.

But I am grateful and happy.

Here the situation is kept alive and filled with new life. "

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The wind blows into the microphone of the Greenpeace Twitter stream.

But on this “sad day with sad topics” Igor Levit is now playing one of the “most beautiful tunes ever”, an Irish song: “Danny Boy”.

For the Danni.

Behind the camera there is clearly audible scramble for the best seats.

120 viewers logged in live for this musical statement, which is not a concert.

Or is it?

But then a short and funny one.

Exactly two minutes and 35 seconds, Igor Levit jingles in the cold Hessian fairy tale forest, from which you can not see any trees.

Just a metal fence with barbed wire.

In front of it stands, somewhat absurdly, a polished piano and stool on a pedestal that is no longer completely white.

That certainly came to this environmental statement with the car.

Just like Igor Levit.

And with wireless speakers, the few piano minutes are now broadcast to the remaining environmentalists in their tree houses in the remaining forest.

The song was written by a lawyer

"Danny Boy" is a song by the English lawyer Frederic Weatherly.

He wrote the text in 1910 initially on an alternative melody, but replaced it with the old Irish folk tune "A Londonderry Air".

So actually Levite, who doesn't sing, is only playing the Irish melody now.

Derry, not Danny.

Bluesy, in minor, slow.

The acoustics are thin and emaciated, despite the double microphone with fur trim above the piano.

A soft mourning song with long pauses in art, a shimmering sound, arpeggiated ending.

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The text, which cannot be heard and is covered by a myriad of singers, is about saying goodbye to a loved one and their return.

It only becomes really kitschy when a Celtic flute plays with it.

A clever tune choice, by the way, because the title of Christian Kracht's novel "I'll be here in the sunshine and in the shade" is also based on a verse from "Danny Boy".

While the Federal Cross of Merit Igor Levit is still playing, flying - you really have to hurry up with digital activism - raise your hearts on the stream, in brown and green, like the forest - and like the feces that only recently pelted the police here.

Christi88506 tweeted: "Everything is so sad."

Yes, climate protection and the piano.

Danni, Danny Boy and Derry Air. Two hours later, 12,000 people have seen the eight-minute clip.

It followed, but there are only fragments on the net, "Trees" by Fred Hersch and an excerpt from the Levit classic "The People United ..." by Frederic Rzewski.


Incidentally, Igor Levit has just recorded a statement video.

The "Ode to Joy" in the Liszt arrangement.

For Beethoven's 250th birthday.